Kai Nielsen - Ethics Without God (1973)

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We must be on guard against the irrational heart of rationalism and not set out on the quest for certainty.

Kai Nielsen

I shall argue that the fact that God wills something - if indeed that is a fact - cannot be a fundamental criterion for its being morally good or obligatory, and thus it cannot be the only criterion or the only adequate criterion for moral goodness or obligation.

Kai Nielsen

If you ask someone where he got his moral beliefs, he, to be realistic, should answer that he got them from his parents, parent surrogates, teachers. They are beliefs which he has been conditioned to accept.

Kai Nielsen

Any realistic morality - secular or religious - links in some close way with what men on reflection actually desire and with that illusive thing we call human happiness.

Kai Nielsen

Morality cannot be based on religion. If anything, the opposite is partly true, for nothing can be God unless he or it is an object worthy of worship and it is our own moral insight that must tell us if anything at all could possibly be
worthy of worship.

Kai Nielsen